Bilingual Kids in Language Immersion ES Programs, Which Programs Have Many & Strive to Attract Them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If you don't like YY don't apply. Everyone knows, or should know, that YY cannot circumvent charter law. What many of you do not know is that a couple years back, YY did approach the charter board about amending the rules to get a greater percentage of native speakers, similar to LAMB's. I often wonder if that is how LAMB's cheating came to light, but I digress.

YY has reached out to the dwindling DC Chinese American community. As a matter of fact, some of the programs in after school are administered by members of the Chinese Center. I think many people on DCUM like to talk smack with half the facts.

I didn't know that. Why isn't this request discussed at YY? Why doesn't the administration try again, now that change is in the air with the new city council committee on education, and all the chatter about DCPS-charter partnerships? If DCPS schools can openly recruit native speakers, includiung many FARMS kids, why not charters? The DCI founders could jointly approach the charter board with a proposal, with nothing to lose if it fails.

Dwindling Chinese-American commuity? The 2010 US Census showed nearly a 1,000 person jump in residents self-identifying as Chinese from 2000. What is true is that the number of ethnic residents of Chinatown is going down.

[Anonymous]

The request was made recently. LAMB only stopped their dual lottery this year.

A school like Bridges catering to SN kids probably has a better chance of getting a waiver for preferential admissions than YY who wants more bilingual speakers. Either way, preferential admissions to charters is not something the charter board wants to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This does not surprise me and I'm generally pro YY. Which class? Prior to the current preK, YY has gone through their entire waitlist for preK so any favoritism like what happened to you really made no difference. At least this will make "let's recruit more native speakers" people happy.

I wouldn't be so sure, not when a minority of DC Chinese speaks Mandarin well enough to chat with an administrator in that dialect. Mandarin is akin to Classical Arabic for Arabs, something you learn in school vs. speak at home. You're a lot more likely to draw in an embassy family than an ordinary immigrant family by limiting your native-speaking prospective parents to Mandarin speakers. Sounds like that's what's done now, and only a dialect-speaking new administrator could fix it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This does not surprise me and I'm generally pro YY. Which class? Prior to the current preK, YY has gone through their entire waitlist for preK so any favoritism like what happened to you really made no difference. At least this will make "let's recruit more native speakers" people happy.

I wouldn't be so sure, not when a minority of DC Chinese speaks Mandarin well enough to chat with an administrator in that dialect. Mandarin is akin to Classical Arabic for Arabs, something you learn in school vs. speak at home. You're a lot more likely to draw in an embassy family than an ordinary immigrant family by limiting your native-speaking prospective parents to Mandarin speakers. Sounds like that's what's done now, and only a dialect-speaking new administrator could fix it.

Point taken. "lets recruit more Mandarin speakers" happy. YY is a Mandarin school. While I admire your tenacity about giving dialect speakers preference, it simply is not going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree that second gen kids raise the bar in Chinese classes. That was my experience in high school, college, and graduate school. Actually, when I was in high school and got better grades than some of the second gen kids who spoke at home, they would get punished for not trying hard enough. The lack of second gen kids at Yu Ying is one of my concerns about the school, but if my kid gets in will probably take the slot.

Your DC will not get in, unfortunately due to sibling preference.

I would not be so sure PP. My DC received the call in late September for a PK spot. DC doesn't have any siblings.

How far down the waitlist did they get last yr for preK?

This yr, the siblings from the jumbo preK class, rising 1st, will be applying so there will be many more siblings than previous yrs for preK. But hopefully there will be some spots for the lottery.

Why are you so sure that so many families with kids in the bubble class have kids in that specific age range? Of the ~20 families in that class whose family structure I'm familiar with, only one or two have a rising PK kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree that second gen kids raise the bar in Chinese classes. That was my experience in high school, college, and graduate school. Actually, when I was in high school and got better grades than some of the second gen kids who spoke at home, they would get punished for not trying hard enough. The lack of second gen kids at Yu Ying is one of my concerns about the school, but if my kid gets in will probably take the slot.

Your DC will not get in, unfortunately due to sibling preference.

I would not be so sure PP. My DC received the call in late September for a PK spot. DC doesn't have any siblings.

How far down the waitlist did they get last yr for preK?

This yr, the siblings from the jumbo preK class, rising 1st, will be applying so there will be many more siblings than previous yrs for preK. But hopefully there will be some spots for the lottery.

Why are you so sure that so many families with kids in the bubble class have kids in that specific age range? Of the ~20 families in that class whose family structure I'm familiar with, only one or two have a rising PK kid.

You're the 3rd person to ask that PP about this, and they've had no response, which means they were talking out of their you know where and they can't back it up. Don't hold your breath for an explanation (and that mega 1st grade class is NOT an explanation, since even the school itself is not thinking that plus sibs from other grades will take up the whole PK entering class).

[Anonymous]

Thank you OP, if you are still out there, for a board reminding me to be thankful for LAMB!! I honestly don't know how we get a bumper crop of native speakers in year after year, but thank heavens we do. From these posts, you wonder why most YY parents bother with Mandarin immersion when they sound like the last people to appreciate the Chinese. Those inbound schools must really suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you OP, if you are still out there, for a board reminding me to be thankful for LAMB!! I honestly don't know how we get a bumper crop of native speakers in year after year, but thank heavens we do. From these posts, you wonder why most YY parents bother with Mandarin immersion when they sound like the last people to appreciate the Chinese. Those inbound schools must really suck.

As a hopeful YY parent (who is realistic about the rotten odds), I am totally sick of all this "Oh, the IB schools must be really awful". We spoke a lot to the parents who we waited in line with for HOURS about our various reasons for being interested in YY and in Mandarin, and despite the many families with no family or cultural ties to China or Mandarin, these parents were pretty much universal in specifically choosing Mandarin and YY for their child.

Of COURSE there will be parents just shooting for the best charter they can get into because, yes, their IB school sucks. But to paint all the parents or even a majority of the parents with that brush is ridiculous. There are a LOT of parents making an educated decision, and this is one of the choices they're going for, not just a "what the heck, if that's the best I can do I'll do it" attitude.

If the school isn't for you, cool, actually super cool (one less family we're competing with for a spot! ) but there are a lot of assumptions beyond simply asking good questions that are getting really really old.

By the way OP, I think you initiated a great conversation that I'm grateful for, as there are aspects of the Cantonese vs. Mandarin discussion I had no idea about and will now look into further. And I respect any and all who have real reasons for applying or not applying. Beyond that though, enough already with the assumptions about who is applying!

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how far YY went into their waitlist for preK last year? Just want some tangible clue about our minuscule chances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous[/quote wrote:
Point taken. "lets recruit more Mandarin speakers" happy. YY is a Mandarin school. While I admire your tenacity about giving dialect speakers preference, it simply is not going to happen.

A friend teaching at the Mandarin immmersion charter in Amherst MA tells me that her principal scours W. Mass communities for any dialect speaker she can find willing to consider putting their kid's name in the hat. "Giving preference" is even older than "bad IB schools". Try enabling the school to achieve significantly higher standards in Chinese. Not going to happen is right, you've got me there, not enough logic, East Asia area knowledge, or ambition at any level to support the initative in this particular city.

Incidentally, at any given time, we know pretty much all the Chinese au pairs hosted by YY families. Most are Cantonese-speakers and, unbeknownst to their white host parents, their little charges break out in Cantonese all the time. They gather at our place at the invitation of our latest au pair and tell us how they went from whatever dialect to full immersion Mandarin in kindergarten without difficulty. The transition is made by tens of millions of little kids in China annually, but can't happen at YY.

[Anonymous]

Instead of spewing about how great/better/stupendous it will be for YY (and you especially) if they gave preference to Cantonese speakers, why don't you take all that ambition and open your own Cantonese charter. You can hire a dialect speaker admin and make it perfect - the way you want. GL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you OP, if you are still out there, for a board reminding me to be thankful for LAMB!! I honestly don't know how we get a bumper crop of native speakers in year after year, but thank heavens we do. From these posts, you wonder why most YY parents bother with Mandarin immersion when they sound like the last people to appreciate the Chinese. Those inbound schools must really suck.

Seriously? You don't know? You're not aware of the substantial Spanish-speaking demographic in DC? You're not the sharpest knife in the drawer, my dear.

In any event, since you're not at Yu Ying, you really don't know what you're talking about. Though you won't let that stop you, if you're regularly in the habit of taking the word of anonymous cranks on the internet with an axe to grind. You are not going to find another school in DC that is more appreciative of the Chinese. And no, quite a lot of us have other options, some private, some IB, some moving to MoCo. Yu Ying is choice school for our family, and for most of the families I know.

For the nth time, if you want the charter law changed to allow Yu Ying to give preference to Chinese speakers, then lobby to change it. For now, the lottery gives the same chance to everyone, and the school takes seriously its obligation to provide an excellent education to all students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you really want a school with more native chinese speaking students, apply to Thompson ES. Oh no, too many FARMS, even among the catonese speaking students.

What a jerk you are. So bad for PR at our beloved YY that I hope somebody gives your kid a full ride to Sidwell very soon.

Don't worry about the FARMs Cantonese-speakers at Thompson. They're going to top colleges anyway. Would love to have them join the party, giving our pampered little pains a run for their money, in English and math as much as Chinese.

Much as you love to claim that most of the Chinese speakers with 4 year olds are beating down the door to get in, I assure you that the ethnic Thompson parents aren't applying. They're scraping together the dough to move to MoCo, having heard that YY isn't for dialect speakers with nobody from the school disabusing them of the notion.

Reading is fundamental. PP, you missed that concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree that second gen kids raise the bar in Chinese classes. That was my experience in high school, college, and graduate school. Actually, when I was in high school and got better grades than some of the second gen kids who spoke at home, they would get punished for not trying hard enough. The lack of second gen kids at Yu Ying is one of my concerns about the school, but if my kid gets in will probably take the slot.

Your DC will not get in, unfortunately due to sibling preference.

I would not be so sure PP. My DC received the call in late September for a PK spot. DC doesn't have any siblings.

How far down the waitlist did they get last yr for preK?

This yr, the siblings from the jumbo preK class, rising 1st, will be applying so there will be many more siblings than previous yrs for preK. But hopefully there will be some spots for the lottery.

Why are you so sure that so many families with kids in the bubble class have kids in that specific age range? Of the ~20 families in that class whose family structure I'm familiar with, only one or two have a rising PK kid.

You're the 3rd person to ask that PP about this, and they've had no response, which means they were talking out of their you know where and they can't back it up. Don't hold your breath for an explanation (and that mega 1st grade class is NOT an explanation, since even the school itself is not thinking that plus sibs from other grades will take up the whole PK entering class).

I'm not the PP who made that comment, but I'll take a stab at an answer. This isn't specific to Yu Ying, but to lots of elementary schools. In my observation, the most common spacing between siblings is two years. The actual difference in months may be anywhere from 18 to 30, but the most common pattern I see (everywhere - not just Yu Ying) is siblings two grades apart. I suppose the person (or people) making that declaration is just basing their opinion on that general pattern. It's hardly a scientific and precise count, but it's not an unreasonable assumption, either.

That's all. Everyone can continue to sling arrows at each other again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you OP, if you are still out there, for a board reminding me to be thankful for LAMB!! I honestly don't know how we get a bumper crop of native speakers in year after year, but thank heavens we do. From these posts, you wonder why most YY parents bother with Mandarin immersion when they sound like the last people to appreciate the Chinese. Those inbound schools must really suck.

Word on the street is that those JKLM, Brent and Maury schools are pretty impressive. Yet, parents IB to these schools chose to send their children to YY. PP why did you choose LAMB? Your IB school must really suck!